Chapter 384 The Navy takes action
The six members of the North American gang had been friends for many years before they traveled through time. They all trusted each other very much, so they met to travel halfway around the world to Hainan Island to participate in a time-traveling operation with an uncertain future. But even if they act in unison, their purposes for participating in the time travel are still different. Some want to completely break away from the past life circle, some want to seek more excitement in the unknown world, and some hope to be able to live in a new environment. Realize your life ideals. But judging from the current actual situation, not everyone is one step closer to their dreams after time travel.
Wang Tom is undoubtedly the lucky one among the six of them. It only took him one year after time travel to become the supreme commander of the militia navy. Not only did he become famous, but he was also far away from the goal of becoming a great navigator that he had set before time travel. Coming closer. However, Qiao Zhiya, who was eager to take risks in the new world, had to spend a lot of time in laboratories and production workshops, dealing with various chemicals and bottles and cans all day long. The military's field tasks became more and more complicated. Coming less and less is certainly not an ideal life situation for him.
But in the Haihan collective, everyone must obey the collective arrangements. Even the executive committee members at the top of the power pyramid cannot do whatever they want. The people in the North American gang who were accustomed to being self-centered in the past have gradually lost their edges in this environment. As far as Wang Tom knew, Qiao Zhiya would never have been able to find ways to secure connections to transfer jobs in the past. With his personality, he would probably be transferred if he could be transferred, and if he couldn't be transferred, he would simply resign and leave. And now Qiao Zhiya seems to have a thinking pattern more and more similar to that of domestically-born time travellers, and has begun to follow the rules within the system when doing things. Wang Tom doesn't know whether such assimilation is a good thing or a bad thing, but if he can make his If my friend lives a happier life, he will still be happy to help.
The first day of 1629 came in the blink of an eye. On the occasion of the new year, the Executive Committee did not hold any form of New Year celebrations. This is because the Haihan calendar, which adopts the later international calendaring method, has not yet been fully implemented locally, and the vast majority of the people are still accustomed to the traditional Chinese almanac. The second reason is that all aspects of work are too busy during this period, and even a one-day shutdown will affect the progress of multiple projects. Especially since there is a large-scale foreign military operation at the beginning of the year, there is no time to stop and rest in the relevant preparation work.
"You're as stupid as a pig! How many days have you been training? You can't even tell the difference between your left and right feet!"
When Gu Wei returned to the office, he complained loudly and angrily took off his military cap and threw it on the table. Although it was already winter, the warm Sanya area was still sunny and the temperature remained around 25 degrees during the day. Gu Wei took the towel handed by the orderly and wiped the sweat from his head, then picked up the tea and drank it. He took a big mouth and slowly calmed down his breathing.
"Didn't you think of a way before to tie a strap on the feet to help the recruits distinguish between left and right?" After Gu Wei's mood stabilized, Harugong, who was sitting next to him, began to persuade him: "This method was not used to train recruits before. Quite effective?”
"Old ha, you don't know how stupid this batch of new recruits are... No, I still have to talk to Mr. Yan. The threshold for recruiting people still needs to be set higher, especially these new Vietnamese monkeys. Immigrants speak with a heavy accent. They can’t understand what I say. I can’t understand what they say. They are not as useful as the Li and Miao people recruited from the mountains!” Speaking of the new recruits under his command, Gu said: Wei was furious again.
"Don't talk about it like that. No matter where you come from, the militiamen are all naturalized citizens after joining the army. If Mr. Yan and Mr. Tao hear this, then your political attitude is incorrect!" Haru Gong said with good intentions. reminded.
"If I had a choice, I really don't want to lead these new soldiers. It's too nerve-wracking." Gu Wei shook his head repeatedly.
"If you are someone whose IQ is too low and can't be corrected, you might as well leave it to me. I still have some positions that don't require training in tactical movements. It doesn't matter if you are stupid." Haru smiled and gave Gu Wei advice. : "You don't need to be very smart to cut grass and feed horses. Just give me the people you eliminated. It just so happens that I am also short of labor here."
"I'm afraid these monkey soldiers can't even learn to cut grass!" Gu Wei muttered a few words, then stood up and picked up his military cap: "No, I still have to go to the training ground to keep an eye on these monkey cubs, and give me a warning by the way. If they can’t practice anymore, they will all be sent to Jinji Ridge to be grooms!”
Since the cross-sea operations after the beginning of the new year required the deployment of most of the militia troops, the Military Commission temporarily recruited another battalion of new recruits. Nearly 70% of this batch of new recruits came from immigrants introduced from North Vietnam after April this year. It can be regarded as a group of militiamen with the highest concentration of naturalized people of Annan descent so far. Although most people in North Vietnam speak the same language as Guangdong and Guangxi, the difference in accent is also very obvious. Without the Annan militiamen who joined the army early to act as simultaneous translators, Gu Wei would not even be able to direct the training of these new recruits. The training time given to him by the Military Commission is very limited. The militia will send troops by the end of January at the latest. At that time, the grassroots militia, militia recruits and police forces will take on local defense tasks. Gu Wei does not want to be destroyed by a group of idiots. The reputation of "the instructor of the Imperial Army".
After the campaign in early 1628, although the military budget was still tightly constrained by the Executive Committee, the military's military expansion operations never stopped. On average, a group of militiamen who have completed training will join the army every three months, and at the same time, a group of new soldiers will be recruited. By the end of 1628, the garrison in the Victory Port area alone included two full battalions of the Army with a total of more than 1,500 people, 22 combat ships of the Navy's South China Sea Fleet with a total of more than 800 people, and a reserve grassroots militia of more than 1,000 people.
After the establishment was expanded, the military camp area originally located east of Victory Port was overcrowded, and even the shooting range was moved to the ravine between the military camp area and the Victory Port Salt Fields. Taking into account future development needs, the Military Commission designated the current barracks area as an exclusive base for the navy, and the army's garrison base was moved from the current barracks area to the Luhuitou Peninsula. A large number of barracks have been built in the plain area between the northern and southern mountains of the Luhuitou Peninsula, and the new camp area is close to the immigration isolation observation area, which can invisibly have a certain deterrent effect.
Of course, in addition to the militia forces of the headquarters, there is also an indispensable force in the military operations against South Vietnam, which is the special operations force from Black Earth Port. This external force, which was personally organized, trained, and commanded by Qian Tiandun, has achieved very impressive results in previous operations, and it has the appearance of a trump card force. The Executive Committee and the Military Commission were also generous in their support for this unit. In addition to developing and producing short-barreled shotguns specifically for jungle warfare and street fighting, they also distributed a batch of expensive Type 28 snipers. Rifles were given to this unit, and ten people were selected from the snipers trained in the base camp to serve in the Black Earth Port Military District. If there is any shortcoming in this unit, it may be that the long-range firepower output is not strong enough.
Different from the militia group in the base camp, the artillery equipped by this unit is mainly light and portable 3-pound guns, with a small number of 6-pound guns as fire support. As for the 12-pound guns used by the base camp army, in this unit Zhongze can't be seen at all. This is not because the Military Commission intentionally did not allocate heavy weapons to them, but because the combat concept of this unit relies on its good mobility, and carrying a large number of larger-caliber artillery will obviously seriously affect mobility. Besides, attacking on the frontal battlefield has never been the main task undertaken by this force. When it is really necessary to build a long-term defense line or conduct a large-scale battle, it is natural for regular troops from the base camp to cooperate with it.
At present, the establishment of the Black Tu Port Special Operations Force has been expanded from the original special operations company to a special operations battalion, with three combat companies, one engineer company and one special agent company, totaling more than 800 people. In addition, Black Tu Port also has reserve militia and surface forces, and the special operations battalion also has a size of nearly 2,000 people, stationed in Black Tu Port, Tushan Port and Yong'an Port.
In the military operations against South Vietnam after the beginning of the new year, the number of troops the Military Commission will dispatch will definitely exceed the level of the previous year. The combat troops alone will definitely exceed 2,000 people, and the shipping, baggage, logistics and other personnel who will cooperate with the operation are estimated to be more than 1,000 people. Coupled with the large number of civilians accompanying the army, the total number of personnel participating in the battle is estimated to be more than 4,000 people. , which will also set a new record for the Haihan Militia’s foreign military operations.
Sending so many troops to fight in South Vietnam will inevitably lead to a void in one's own defense. Therefore, the Military Commission will seize every second to recruit and train new recruits. At the same time, it also makes targeted arrangements for the combat plan to shorten the troops' deployment time as much as possible.
The only way to achieve such an effect is to improve combat efficiency and eliminate South Vietnam's effective forces in the shortest possible time. As for cleaning up the mess, we can leave it to the North Vietnamese Army to do it slowly. Several key ports in the South Vietnam region have been acquired in advance, and the strategic goals have been achieved more than half ahead of schedule. Now the Executive Committee will no longer point to extending the combat time to extract military expenses from the North Vietnamese court - by then the entire Central and South Vietnam Almost all the ports on the east coast of the peninsula are under the control of Hai Han, which is equivalent to controlling the import and export trade of the entire Annan Kingdom. The benefits that can be obtained are not only what can be obtained from the North Vietnamese court now. Money. However, while the army was still preparing for this expedition, the militia and navy had already set off quietly in the early hours of one morning. The fleet composed of twenty warships will rush to South Vietnam's waters to establish a forward station. Its main combat mission is to block South Vietnam's sea lines of communication in advance and cut off its sea channels for import and export materials.
The leader of this fleet is naturally Wang Tom, the supreme commander of the navy. It was under his command that the Haihan militia attacked Hoi An Port nearly six months ago. The navy's combat plan this time was also led by Wang Tom. If the combat mission can be completed satisfactorily this time, then the title of commander of the navy will basically be on his head in the future.
"The air at sea is the most free and comfortable!" Qiao Zhiya, who finally completed the deployment one day before the fleet set out and resumed his status as a soldier, supported the side of the ship with both hands and admired sincerely.
"When did you go to sea and didn't you say that? If you stay at sea for a few more days, you'll be shouting to go ashore!" Wang Tom exposed Qiao Zhiya mercilessly.
Qiao Zhiya didn't take it seriously and laughed loudly: "I promise I will never complain from now on. It's great to be able to return to the sea."
Qiao Zhiya's previous position in the army was actually an engineering soldier. When the Black Earth Port was developing and repairing coal rails, Qiao Zhiya worked as a construction technical consultant at the site for a period of time. However, in this job transfer, because it was Wang Tom who came forward to request people on behalf of the Navy, the executive committee also gave Wang Tom face and satisfied his request. So after Qiao Zhiya returned to the military, he was included in the Navy establishment and given to Wang Tom. Be a deputy. Of course, Qiao Zhiya himself also has certain sailing abilities, and his sailing experience is even more than that of most captains in the current navy, so he is fully qualified for this deputy position.
On January 7, 1629, the militia naval fleet quietly arrived at Cham Island, only 10 nautical miles off the coast of Hoi An. When Wang Tom led his army to attack Hoi An Port the previous year, he also chose this place as a temporary base. Choosing this small island to settle down again this time is actually somewhat of a last resort, because there are no islands in the coastal area near Hue Province for the fleet to dock, so choosing Cham Island is also a helpless move.
However, what surprised Wang Tom slightly was that the dozen or twenty families of South Vietnamese fishermen who lived on the island the previous year still did not move away, and even took over some of the temporary residences built by the last vigilante group on the island as their own. . Wang Tom couldn't laugh or cry, so he could only order these fishermen to be controlled first, so this group of people became prisoners of the militia again after nearly half a year.
After resting for a day on Cham Island, Wang Tom and Qiao Zhiya each took a team of warships out to sea to begin the blockade mission. Prior to this, Victory Port had issued an embargo order to all maritime traders entering and exiting Victory Port, prohibiting ships from docking at South Vietnam's docks and transporting supplies to South Vietnam in any way for two months. However, the effect of this verbal ban is actually very limited. The fleet led by Wang Tom blocked two merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty on the first day of patrol.
Both merchant ships came from Danzhou and were going to Quy Nhon Port in the south for trading. However, after encountering the Haihan warship, this plan naturally could not be realized, and they could only go home obediently.
Qiao Zhiya's luck seemed to be better. He actually ran into a merchant ship under the name of the Ruan family in the sea off Hue, going to Guangzhou for trade. This was also one of the few large ships in South Vietnam that could conduct ocean voyages. At first, the merchant ship thought it had encountered pirates and was ready to flee. However, it had no speed advantage in front of the Haihan warship. It only escaped less than 10 nautical miles before being overtaken by Qiao Zhiya's fleet.
After a round of threatening shooting from the naval warship, the South Vietnamese merchant ship wisely chose to stop and surrender. After the militiamen took over the ship, they found tens of thousands of taels of silver on the ship. After a brief interrogation, Qiao Zhiya learned that the purpose of the ship going to Guangzhou was to purchase weapons produced by Haihan there, and according to the captain, They were not the first ship to set off to Guangzhou to buy weapons. There were several ships that were pioneers before them.
This discovery made Qiao Zhiya laugh and cry. It seemed that the South Vietnamese court was really anxious and planned to grab any straw first. But now that I have met the real owner, there is no need to travel all the way to Guangzhou - the ship and all the people on the ship have become prisoners of the Haihan Militia, and all the property on the ship will naturally be It was seized and became the first loot of this expedition.
All the more than thirty sailors on the ship were taken to Cham Island and imprisoned. During the war period in the next few months, they may have to stay on this island as prisoners.
Since the port of Hoi An was completely destroyed in last year's battle, there are now very few merchant ships visible near Hoi An. The Hai Han fleet hardly has to hide its whereabouts and can enter and leave the nearby waters with arrogance.
On January 10, the fleet once again intercepted two South Vietnamese merchant ships returning from Guangzhou off the coast of Hue. This time, the discovery on the ship once again shocked Wang Tom and Qiao Zhiya - these South Vietnamese actually purchased from Guangzhou. A batch of Type 27 matchlock guns produced by Haihan, and even two 6-pound cannons exported the year before last. According to the factory numbers on the cannons, these two cannons should have been products originally sold to Fujian. It is not known how they ended up in the hands of these South Vietnamese businessmen. But their good luck ended here. This batch of arms would never reach Hue and be distributed to the South Vietnamese army.
On January 13, four patrol warships led by Wang Tom encountered two Dutch armed merchant ships in the waters near Da Nang. Both sides maintained a very cautious attitude of restraint and did not open fire rashly. After an hour of confrontation, Qiao Zhiya came with ten ships for reinforcements. After seeing this, the Dutch merchant ship wisely chose to retreat, and Haihan's side did not pursue it rashly. After all, the main opponent at this stage is South Vietnam, and Wang Tom does not want to provoke the Netherlands in advance.
By late January, Hue Prefecture probably finally realized something was wrong and sent many small boats out to sea to investigate the situation, and only then did they discover traces of the Hai Han fleet. However, it was of no use to discover it. Almost all of South Vietnam's surface combat troops were lost in several battles last year. Even if they can barely cobble together a fleet now, they can only deliver food to Haihan's door and gain experience in vain. Just value.
(End of chapter)